May God bless you and yours – with renewed hope and peace as you ponder Christ’s first coming and prepare for His second…
Teresa Sandhu
Month: December 2014
Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope
Terry was an 18-year-old first year Kinesiology student at Simon Fraser University and a member of the SFU junior varsity basketball team in 1977 when he was diagnosed with bone cancer that resulted in the amputation of his right leg six inches above the knee. After undergoing chemotherapy and seeing other people, particularly children, suffering with cancer, Terry decided that he wanted to make a difference in the world. He wanted to do something to help cure this dreadful disease.
Terry began his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. When he was forced by a recurrence of cancer to stop his cross-Canada run at Thunder Bay, Ontario, on September 1, 1980, he had completed a total of 5,373 km over 143 days, the equivalent of a marathon every day. After a courageous battle with cancer, he passed away in June 1981.
Few people are aware of the physical enormity of what Terry did in his Marathon of Hope run across Canada. He ran 26 miles per day, 7 days per week. Imagine how sore your legs would be if you walked 26 miles, day after day, on pavement. Smiles, day after day. Few people could stand up to such punishment. Then try to imagine how incredibly difficult and painful it would be to run 26 miles per day with an artificial limb. It is almost beyond comprehension.
It was a journey that Canadians will never forget. His courage, determination, humanitarianism, and selflessness have been an inspiration to millions of people.
Quoting: http://www.sfu.ca/terryfox/about.html
Walk a Mile in Her (High-Heeled) Shoes
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® is an international men’s march which brings awareness and support to the goals of stopping rape, sexual assault and gender violence.
So, how do men walk in high heels? Here are the “official tips”:
- Now that you’ve got altitude, it’s important to accessorize your heels with some attitude! Stand tall and poised, shoulders back, chest out, back straight, butt tucked under. Think Marilyn. Monroe, not Manson.
- While standing still, place weight on heels using toes for balance. Don’t wobble. If you start to fall, fall gracefully and roll, shoes in the air. Do not break a heel. Do not take anyone down with you.
- Walk with feet positioned straight, toes pointed forward. Heels should be vertical to the ground, not horizontal.
- Walk placing one foot in front of the other with a smooth, even stepping motion beginning at the heel and rolling to the toe. Primarily walk on the balls of your feet, using the heel for balance. Think runway model, not truck driver. Suck in your cheeks. Face cheeks, not butt cheeks.
- Keep legs parallel and close together. It’s more stylish and when one leg starts to slide one way and the other the opposite way, you’ll have time to recover or get help before having to return to Tip #2 above.
- Move your hips and swing your arms for balance. Swing your arms. Do not flap them. You cannot fly, though with shoes like these you’ll feel like you can soar.
- Walk with confidence, stay focused, and be mindful of your steps without watching your feet.
- When climbing stairs, make sure both sole and heel land together firmly and simultaneously on each step. When descending stairs, only the sole of the shoe needs to be planted on each step. Avoid walking up or down any stairs.
- Avoid walking on ice, slush, mud, grass, sand, gravel and grated surfaces. When in doubt, take off your heels and carry them, crossing such treacherous surfaces in your bare feet. Dangle both shoes in one hand, hooked to your index and middle finger. Do not clutch them. They are not a football.
- Stick together. Use a friend as a crutch. Make sure you leave the proper distance between you and your friend in proper bro hug fashion. Once stabilized, use the bro hug double back tap combo to disengage.
Copyright © 2001 – 2011 Frank Baird . All Rights Reserved.
Boots That Delivered
If these boots could talk, they would tell you an amazing story. Worn by Canadian Nigel Fisher, they have visited thirteen countries and have trekked over 100,000 kilometres during thirty years with the UN and UNICEF. They have walked through deserts, mountains, tropical rainforests, jungles, sandstorms and torrential rains. Nigel’s footwear brought emergency and vaccination programs to millions of children.
These boots navigated through the perilous rubble of Port-au-Prince after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. They witnessed negotiations between the Afghan government, the opposing Northern Alliance and an international coalition to ensure a polio vaccination campaign could proceed following the bombings when war broke out in 2001. Nigel wore them when he visited a UNICEF-supported shelter for girls in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo, who had been brutally raped by militias, some of them captured for years, many with babies. The stories go on and on, just like the boots did.
Canadian humanitarian Nigel Fisher’s life-saving boots were inducted into the Bata Shoe Museum in 2012.
http://www.unicef.ca/en/video/the-story-of-a-pair-of-boots
https://secure3.unicef.ca/site/SPageServer?pagename=about_boots&s_locale=en_CA
Seniors ‘Snail Strut’
Seniors take part in the annual St. Hilda’s Foundation ‘Snail Strut’ Walk in Toronto. The walk is geared towards people who are 85 years and older. The goal is to raise money for repairs to their seniors’ residence.
Eva Altay, at 103 years old, was the eldest of more than 115 participants in the event. The average age is 97. Ms. Altay has been living in St. Hilda’s Towers Retirement Residence for 21 years and credits the facilities for her good health and sharp mind. “It’s the secret to why I’m so old. It’s because they keep me well,” said Ms. Altay, who also volunteers at the residence. “When I was younger, I could do much more, but now I just help with little things.”
“Walking with the Wounded”: A Charity with Team Spirit
What was initially a 335-km race to the South Pole between British, American and Commonwealth teams had a surprise ending. The fierce but fun competition was suspended due to dangerous conditions. The teams merged into one group for the last part of the trek.
Each of the soldiers on Prince Harry’s team had lost a limb in action, and one lost both legs in Afghanistan. Yet, each would haul a 75-kilogram sled. They had a serious goal: to raise money and awareness for “Walking with the Wounded”. This veterans’ charity helps retrain soldiers for life after the military.
Ed Parker, director of the expedition, told the press about the moment when the teams reached the South Pole: “It was very emotional. We took off our skis and hooked off our sledges and stood together before walking up to the Pole as one.”
http://parade.com/243138/roisinkelly/prince-harry-and-teammates-reach-the-south-pole/
Photo Source: http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/southpole2013/category/south-pole-2013/
Poem: Footprints in the Snow
I had a dream one wintry night as the moon was full and bright.
Before me was an evergreen tree, standing alone, just like me.
Then a man came walking by whose caring look caught my eye.
It was Jesus walking there, calmly in the cold night air.
In my heart at once I knew, all I’d learned of Him was true.
He’s the light in children’s eyes and shining stars in clear night skies.
Life’s answer to each hurt and wrong, the peace we’ve needed for so long.
It was the holy Christmas season, and He had come by for a reason.
He put a bow on top of the tree, as a symbol of His gift for me.
I woke up thinking of what I’d dreamed, amazed at how real it all had seemed.
Beyond my window, I heard not a sound; falling snow was covering the ground.
On the tree I saw a beautiful bow, crimson red on the pure white snow.
Streamers were flowing down the tree, like the blood He shed for me.
I was in awe of the bright red bow – then I saw His footprints in the snow.
Copyright Jerry & Sandi Knode 2002 — Abbey Press
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/general-stamping-talk-f17/footprints-snow-t21975.html
Photo Source:
http://www.wdrake.com/buy-my-christmas-dream-christmas-card-set-of-20-334405
Raised Footprints in the Snow
This photograph shows a trail of footprints across Antarctica. The person who made them is long gone.
Raised footprints take weeks to form. They are the product of a very specific environment. The snow has to be loose and dry, so that the foot can sink in and compress the snow until it’s hard. Since snowfall and rain can spoil the print, the weather has to be dry. And there has to be constant wind. As someone walks, their feet tamp down the snow until it’s extremely hard in comparison to the snow all around it.
As the wind sweeps across the area, it whisks away loose particles of snow. It takes considerably longer to whisk away the compressed snow of the footprints. Eventually, the wind wears down an entire plain, or side of a hill, except for the hardened tracks in the snow.
http://io9.com/raised-footprints-when-snow-steps-up-473092187
Debussy’s Footsteps in the Snow
Composer Claude Debussy was not a natural at the piano. At first, he struggled to learn to love the instrument. But as he continued to write piano music, Debussy started trying new things, new sounds. He seemed to want to take the piano to places it had never been before.
Debussy’s prelude, Footsteps in the Snow, with its quiet, snowbound character was radical when it appeared in 1910. The composer inscribed these instructions on the manuscript: “This rhythm must have the sonorous value of a landscape sad and frozen.”
“We tend to think of radical obsession as something loud, like Beethoven,” Commentator Rob Kapilow tells Performance Today host Fred Child, “But you can be radically obsessed in a quiet landscape, as well…. This piece is a study of two footsteps — left and right. And the amazing thing is what’s going to happen with that. In just these two tiny footsteps, Debussy manages to hear a complete universe.”
Trudging through the snowy landscape, the listener hears Debussy’s repeated alternating chords — left foot, right foot. It almost seems too simple.
http://www.npr.org/2009/02/18/100814333/debussy-a-world-revealed-in-two-footsteps
Check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ8qhfS5o10
Saint Hedwig: Bloody Footprints in the Snow
Saint Hedwig was a duchess in Silesia, an area that overlaps current-day Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. Even in the depths of winter, she insisted on showing her humility by walking to church in her bare feet.
In the upper portion of this miniature image, a servant woman points in horror to the bloody footprints left behind as Hedwig walked in the snow. Below, the saint inflicts wounds on her own back, and then she appears again, clenching her fists in anticipation of the blows. In this way, Hedwig sought to prove her willingness to suffer pain for her faith. Self-inflicted pain was seen in the Middle Ages as a voluntary form of penance, a way of understanding and participating in the Passion of Christ.
There is more to the Saint Hedwig story, for example, testimonies of miraculous changes of water into wine. For the details on that, check the links.
Primary Source: http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=4372
See also: http://history.vusiem.com/item272.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/transcripts/episode57/
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